Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 10/25/2012 at 11:20 AM News

The Popdust Files: Awards, Billboard, carly rae jepsen

Now, you know there’s no bigger fan of Carly Rae Jepsen than us here at Popdust. (She is Our Girl, after all.) But, well, we’re a little practical when considering her career prospects moving forward. As amazing and successful as “Call Me Maybe” was—and we don’t need to remind you how amazing and successful “Call Me Maybe” was, do we?—fact of the matter is that her follow-up singles have not fared quite as well, and her actual LP release fared disappointingly, withKiss selling less than 50k in its first week and barely hanging in the top 50 five weeks after. Chances are pretty good that we’ve already seen the best punch Carly Rae has to offer.

More optimistic in their projections for Carly Rae, though, is Billboard Magazine. Billboard just named Carly Rae their “Rising Star” of 2012, and Carly Rae will appear with Artist of the Year winner Katy Perry at a “Billboard Women in Music” event in New York City. “As a singer-songwriter having grown up listening to and being influenced by countless female artists, I am truly honored to be recognized by Billboard with this award,” said Jepsen via statement. “I hope to inspire others through my music the way those artists have inspired me.”

Now, really, it’s more of an unfortunate name than anything, since the award is more of a Rookie of the Year trophy than a legitimate prediction of future record sales and chart impact. Still, the idea of labeling Carly Rae a “rising star” several months after the peak of “Call Me Maybe”…it’s an unfortunate juxtaposition.

Of course, nobody gets these awards right all the time (including the MLB ROY trophy—I mean, seriously, Bob Hamelin over Manny Ramirez in ’93?) and Billboard appears to be kinda going one-for-every-other-year with this one. Examine previous winners:

2011: Nicki Minaj (sure)
2010: Jazmine Sullivan (not quite)
2009: Lady Gaga (sure)
2008: Colbie Caillat (eh, partial credit)

So perhaps they were due for a down year. Or maybe we’re being unfair and Carly Rae Jepsen goes on to be the next Mariah Carey. As always, we’re rooting for Our Girl.